How Did Your Weed Control System Work This Year?
Right now is the perfect time to evaluate the effectiveness of whatever soybean weed control system you used this year. Resistant weeds, like the water hemp in this picture, are poking their ugly heads above the canopy.
The programs where failures are showing up typically did not utilize an in-season residual. This is nearly as important as a PRE in our recommendations anymore, especially in resistant waterhemp country. Waterhemp is one weed that can emerge all season long and in-season residual products are vital for control. Late season weed escapes are usually not overwhelming in number and while they won’t affect yield much, control is necessary in order to halt their spread in coming years.
The PRE herbicides worked pretty well this year even in areas with limited rainfall. This gave us a cleaner start and easier control in season.
The dicamba products labeled for Xtend beans had good control of most weeds this year. However, with the rule changes and earlier applications, the residual in-season products will become even more important.
Liberty worked well again this season as we had early heat and sunny days on which to spray.
Many of our Enlist E3 soybean seed growers have commented on the great weed control they are seeing on tough weeds. They also like the ease of use and flexibility.